“When a person utters a sequence of words, the speaker is often trying to achieve some effect with those words, an effect which might in some cases have been accomplished by an alternative action. The words ‘get back!’ might convey the same notion as a push. .. .. In brief, a number of utterances behave somewhat like actions. .. .. ..this overall approach is known as speech act theory.”
– From Chap 9 – Using Language, Jean Aitchison‘s “Understanding Linguistics”.

1. “Speaking a language is engaging in a (highly-complex) rule-governed form of behavior. To learn and master a language is (inter alia) to learn and to have mastered these rules”
– ఇక్కడ సియర్లే ఫోకస్ – “how to do things with words” అన్న అంశంపైన అంటారు రచయిత. అయితే, ఇదే అసలైన అధ్యయనం అని ఈయన పట్టుబట్టడు అంటూ –

2. “A great deal can be said in the study of language without studying speech acts, but any such purely formal study is necessarily incomplete”
-అన్నాడని చెబుతారు.

5.”We learned how to play the game of illocutionary acts, but in general it was done without an explicit formulation of rules, and the first step in getting such a formulation is to set out the conditions for the performance of a particular illocutionary act”
-బహుశా, ఇదే పైన చెప్పిన వాటికి సమ్మరీ ఏమో!

6. “In the systematic study of language, as in any systematic study, one of our aims is to reduce the maximum amount of data to the minimum amount of principles”
-ఈ ఆలోచనా విధానమే machine learning వెనుక కూడా ఉందేమో అనిపించింది ఇది చదివాక.

7. “Entities such as universals do not lie in the world, but in our mode of representing the world”
-“Linguistic Universal” గురించి చెప్పినట్లు ఉన్నారు. ఆసక్తికరంగా అనిపించింది నాకు.

**

“Naturally, in summarizing positive aspects of Searle’s theory of language, we must not forget the importance he ascribes to context as far as the meaning is concerned. And it is also with regard to meaning that Searle emphasized that “the characteristic intended effect of meaning is understanding”.

A final hint of Searle’s open-mindedness in respect of language can be seen in the fact that he takes linguistics not to be a science, but simply a systemic study adhering to certain methodological principles which we may also find in the (natural sciences)

Noam Chomsky would certainly not agree to that opinion as we shall be able to see in the discussion of his book “knowledge of language” which is to be analyzed next”